"Barn Burning," Al Purdy

[switchercat.livejournal.com]

I just acquired an enormous fat book of Al Purdy and I am gonna post bits of him here, slowly, because he deserves it. Rough and good.

*

Stayed up late
working on a prose piece
around 2 a.m.
when a great light bulged in at the windows
and peered at what I was writing
making it trivial

I drove there
half a mile away
in a kind of anxiety
for I don't know what
maybe fear of the red monster
I parked at a safe distance
while cops prowled around like sleepwalkers
dreaming of arson
with blank expressions
acting like they were needed somewhere else
while the planet burned



It was more than a fire
it was Genesis with a safety match
it was the Destroying Angel with a Bic lighter
-- a worm of fear chewed my guts
but I wasn't afraid
it was an exaltation
a shiver at the edge of extinction
a godhead of transience

Meanwhile back at the barn
whiskered whirlwinds climbed the sky
fifty-foot timbers barn-boards steel spikes
and tons of nightmares
became weightless auroras
I stared higher:
the Big Dipper the North Star the
planets dangling like grapes
in a galactic vineyard
and even the home galaxy I'm standing on
all vanished
and words lost their connectives

I suppose it was "important" for me
to keep looking at
everything else diminished
including certainly myself
I went home and slept
and asked my questions in sleep
In the morning words returned
and the sun from a nest of clouds
and little diamonds of dew
sparkled in the pale white light
that filtered into my mind
and the clichés were restful
they made common sense